Hawaii Dispensary Moves to Appointment Only Amidst Product Shortage

Hawaii’s first licensed dispensary must close for two days and change their operating hours after the company’s products didn’t clear state testing certification by Saturday. Maui Grown Therapies opened for the first time last week after the Department of Health granted a license to Steep Hill Hawaii to test medical cannabis products.

“Due to high demand, the company sold out its first batch of certified flowers on Saturday. To prevent patients from fruitless trips to its dispensary, the company will close on Monday and Tuesday, August 14 & 15, and reopen on Wednesday, August 16 at noon,” the company said in a statement. “Due to uncertain product availability, the company will extend its sales by appointment policy until further notice.”

Christopher Cole, director of product management for Maui Grown, said that despite the testing laboratory approval, the company is currently only able to sell flower due to “restrictions placed on the only licensed lab.”

“It’s unfortunate that an administrative hindrance of this magnitude prevents patients from getting the help they need,” Cole said in the release. “We had planned to open with a full range of derivative products such as concentrates, oils, capsules and topical products, but at the eleventh hour we discovered that the State Labs Division had failed to certify a lab to conduct testing of manufactured products.”

Dr. Gregory Park, an oncologist and co-founder of Maui Grown, said it was “ironic” that the “vehemently anti-smoking” Health Department is “forcing cannabis patients to smoke to get relief.”

Neither Cole nor Park could ascertain when the ‘administrative hindrance’ would be resolved.

TG Branfalt

TG is a journalist by trade and has been covering cannabis industry news for Ganjapreneur.com since 2014. He is also the host of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast and currently lives in Burlington, Vermont.

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